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How to make a fiber optical loop yourself!

Due to reasons (30$ shipping to norway) to actual buy a fiber optical loop so i could replace the CD unit i figgured well, how hard can it be? So checked around home for some usable junk. I found one of those home stereo optical cables and a small box (aprox 10*10*5 cm). Great! Just what i needed! As i did not want to cut into the actual fiber wires in the car this was perfect.

Okay, here is what i did:
1: Cut off aprox 15-20 cm of the fiber wire i found earlier

2: now strip of the outer 1 cm of insulation on the piece of fiberwire we just made. Save the bits of insualtion. It should slide of the cable easly.

3: look into the connector in the car. You will notice that the fiber conection inside the plug are actualy two pins, one of them should be blinking. Take the insulation you just pryed off the fiber wire and push it onto the pins so it sstays. If it isnt a snug fit om the pin try to wiggle it a little so it stays on.

4: now take the fiberwirevand push the ends into the insulation sleeves in the plug. It may need a couple of tries and poking around but it should work eventualy. Now the ICM should light up and you should get the system sounds again! Watch out, it will be very sensetive and have poor contact. This we fix in the next section.

5: now take the small plastic box and cut some groves on the side so you can fit the cables from the car to the plug in them. Place the plug with the fiber loop inside the box. This can also be a little tricy as thr fiber signal will easly loose contact while doing it. Poke around untill you are able to close the box without loosing fiber signal. Tape the cable to the box in some way on the outside to avoid it wiggling into the box. You want to keep the cables in the box stationary so it dont lose contact.

6: now proceed to convert the rest of the wires to the new stereo unit!

Sorry for not posting anny pictures as i did not taje anny when doing this. It has held up well for me for a couple of days without failing. Would ofcourse recomend to just buy the darn loop online if you can afford it. But this will work in a pinch!

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